Jim Letten's admission that his former top assistant, Jan Maselli Mann, wrote caustic online commentary under the pen name "eweman" could further imperil his standing as the senior U.S. attorney in the country. More immediately, it provides an opening for former Jefferson Parish Aaron Broussard and ex-parish attorney Tom Wilkinson to reconsider their guilty pleas to corruption charges.

Letten disclosed Mann's NOLA.com pseudonym in a private letter dated Nov. 20 to U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr., who is presiding over the Broussard and Wilkinson case. The letter contains no indication that Letten copied the defendants' attorneys, and indeed, Head called it an "ex parte" communication, the legal phrase for a matter in which only one party to a case is present.

Head responded Monday by publishing Letten's letter in the court record, along with Mann's previously secret July 2 report on the office's investigation into online comments by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Perricone. (Read Letten's letter, Mann's report.) The judge also invited Broussard and Wilkinson to respond to Letten's new disclosure. (Read the judge's order.)

Attorneys for Broussard and Wilkinson did not return calls for comment Tuesday, but one obvious option is to seek to withdraw their guilty pleas. That might be allowed because both previously lost attempts to have Letten's office recused from prosecuting them, based on Perricone's online comments. In July, Head denied their recusal motions, relying on Mann's now-discredited report of the internal investigation into the Perricone comments.

But taking that first step is hardly a guarantee of success, and it might not even be advisable considering other factors in the case, said Pat Fanning, who represents Broussard's former chief administrative officer, Tim Whitmer, in a related corruption case.

"If you file a motion to withdraw your plea, you may or may not be successful," Fanning said. "And if you do win, be careful what you ask for."

For example, Letten's office might stay on the case and take Broussard and Wilkinson to trial, perhaps winning convictions that would send the defendants to prison for longer terms than they would serve under their plea agreements. Or if Letten's office is recused, the Justice Department might send down prosecutors from its Public Integrity Section, as it has in the related prosecution of defendants connected to River Birch Inc.

"You might be worse off," Fanning said. "There's something to be said for getting it over with."

"They've got to decide, 'Can I do better?'"

Perhaps the biggest unknown is Head's disposition. Did he invite Broussard and Wilkinson to respond to Letten's new disclosure merely to cover all the legal bases and ensure an airtight case, or was he telegraphing his inclination to rule in their favor?

That's one of the questions that Broussard and Wilkinson likely will be mulling in the next two weeks. Head gave them a Dec. 17 deadline.